WW2 and the Genoside against Jews

[jimbob2002]

Last night I watched the film "The Pianist", the one where the lead actor won an oscar. Its about WW2 and the persecution and murder of millions of Jewish people.

About 6 weeks ago I watched Chindlers list for the first time, (never got round to watching it before).

Both are absolutely fantastic yet very sad films.

What I am really struggling to get my head round is the how's and the why's.

It was only 60 odd years ago. We all have family as old as that.

How the Nazi soldiers could brutally murder people and beat them to death is astonishing.

I understand that in war situations soldiers are told to attack the enemy and its the enemys life or their own at stake. But in these circumstances there was no retaliation at all, just brutal murdering and humiliation.

But what was worse of all is how the soldiers seemed to have real hatred for these innocent people and really seamed to enjoy killing them.

I find it hard to believe that just over half a century ago, one of the leading countries in Europe had the inclination and power to perform such atrocities, yet managed to get their own country back on track very quickly after they were defeated to re-build back to one of the leading countries in Europe if not the world.

[andyinlondon]

Have a look at "the Killing Fields"

about cambodia in the seventies

same thing happened there and that was 30 years ago.

or the regieme of Idi Amin in Uganda in the eighties.

Or Saddam Hussien in Iraq in the nineties.

How many mass graves have now been found?

it happens all the time m8.

Right now it is still happening in Indonesia and China to name

just two places.

and going back to WW2

the Russian record on treatment of Jews is no better. The Russians had their own "camps" and also persecuted Jews.

and if you look closely at siberia you will still find their camps (gulags) bieing used today for all types of prisoners.

strange you dont hear much about that?

and on the other side the allied treatment of german prisoners of war was pretty bad too.

the Russians Murdered over a million of them.

The French had a good go at murder too.

most of the repatriation camps for returning German prisoners of war were based in france.
pity the french did not abide by the Geneva convention in their treatment of these prisoners. in some camps less than 20% lived to get back to their families.

and the british are responsible for over 200.000 deaths of helpless prisoners.

The Cossack brigades were deliberatly sent to their deaths in direct contravention of the geneva convention and in direct contravention of the terms that they had originally surrendered under.

Oh yes and one last question

Who invented the concentration camp?

who first used this particularly nasty way to kill innocent women

and children?

It was Britian in the Boer war in south africa.

Britian killed thousands of afrikaner (dutch) women and children

in concentration camps in an attempt to sap the will of the Boer forces.

so in answer to your question it was not at all unusual.

the scale was but not the events.

history is full of the same things bieing done over and over again.

Richard the Lionheart heard of him?

he Murdered 3400 people all civilians after the battle of acre

because he did not want to have to feed them and Saladin the enemy commander could not pay a ransom for them in the time Richard had allowed.

these people were killed with swords and it took 3 days to kill them all.

and one last point to remember

history is written by the victors the losers rarely get a say.

so always ask "ok but what did the other side do?"

[Brock]

Great bit of reading andyinlondon
I never knew you had it in ya?

[ABCMan]

andy, that was an excellent piece well done.

[Epiphany]

I'm still waiting for shindlers list to come out on DVD. WHy the hell isnt it out yet? I would have thought that that would have been one of the first to be released...

[jimbob2002]

I have it on DVD.
Its an asian copy I think.
Sound is in English, and there are no subtitles on the screen as standard, but it contains options to turn asian subtiltes on, so its fine for English.
I can get you a copy if you want. PM me for more details.

[CON-DIGI]

Good reply from andyinlondon

In the second world war German prisoners were murdered by ALL the allied nations, did any of the allied commanders face trial at Nuremburg?....what do you think?

What about the estimated 500,000 German women raped by the Russians? the situation was so bad that Churchill and Truman protested to Stalin about it.

Lets not forget about the wholesale murder of German civilians by the less disciplined Russian forces.

Whilst talking about the Russians, what about the 25-30 MILLION who died at the hands of the Germans? all we hear about is the Six million Jews who died (Tragic as that is)

Yes, only the voices of the victorious are heard, the voices of the defeated fall on deaf ears....